


Gambit without Guarantee

by Starrie_Wolf



Series: Playing with Pendulums [5]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Explanations, M/M, Paperwork, Paperwork is Real, We're a trainwreck headed at full speed, brief description of a dead body
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-04-21 08:22:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22054519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starrie_Wolf/pseuds/Starrie_Wolf
Summary: How did everything go so wrong so quickly?
Relationships: Kurosaki Ichigo/Urahara Kisuke
Series: Playing with Pendulums [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1077834
Comments: 98
Kudos: 1132
Collections: UraIchi Prompt Challenge #4





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> UraIchi Event Prompt Challenge #4  
Prompt: 018. Arranged Marriage AU

_Ten hours ago…_

The Second and the Eleventh do not normally have anything to do with each other, given the polar opposites of their… fighting philosophies… but this morning is a little different.

“A message for the Eleventh,” grunts Suì-Fēng, dropping a missive on his desk.

Kisuke looks up in surprise. The Inner Court Troop messengers fall under the direct purview of Yoruichi herself, not him. He opens his mouth to ask, but Suì-Fēng has already left.

He unfolds the short note on top, which is addressed to him.

_Kisuke –_

_Deliver this to Kiganjō, get a reply, and then take your husband out for lunch. Here’s some money._

A few 100-kan coins fall out into his hand, more than enough to cover the cost of a sit-down meal.

Kisuke’s brow furrows slightly. He supposes he can see why he is being sent – the Eleventh is not a place that unseated shinigami should venture carelessly into, and perhaps the other seated officers in the Inner Court Troops are currently busy? Since he already knows the lieutenant of the Eleventh, it would be most logical for him to make the trip.

In any case, orders are orders. He finishes the last few papers on his desk, slots them into the outbox, and heads out.

* * *

The gate guards barely look up when Kisuke walks into the Eleventh, more concerned with their game of dice than checking whether he should be there. He clutches the missive closer to his chest and decides against asking them for directions. The layout of most divisions is fairly similar, and anyway –

Actually, it’s harder than he thought to find Ichigo’s reiatsu. Kiganjō, true to his title of Kenpachi, has substantially more reiatsu than the usual captain, and the very imprint of his presence is lighting up every building around him so bright that Kisuke has to fight not to squint. Compared to the Second, where every seated officer has undergone strict training to erase their presence, it’s frankly a little overwhelming.

Finally managing to pinpoint a hint of Ichigo’s reiatsu, Kisuke starts across the courtyard. His senses are completely drowned out by the echoes of reiatsu splashed all around him, like he’s been staring for too long into the sun, and he can’t wait to get to Ichigo’s office where at least things will feel more familiar.

The spike of killing intent came out of _nowhere_, far too close –

Kisuke whirls around, his heart jackrabbiting into his throat, his body moving on instinct to deal with the threat –

An unsheathed sword slips from a hand with a clatter, rolling a few steps away. Kiganjō’s eyes bulge, his mouth opening and closing, but nothing comes out other than blood-flecked foam. He hangs there, suspended, for an indeterminate number of seconds before his body slips off the knife and lands with a meaty thud on the ground.

Kisuke stares uncomprehendingly at the corpse – he doesn’t make mistakes, an assassin who makes a mistake is a dead assassin – cooling at his feet, blood beginning to seep through the front of its shihakusho. Because Kisuke had just put his knife up through his diaphragm and into his heart.

Sound rushes back into his ears, a cacophony of people shouting and screaming.

He hasn’t been afraid in a long time, but dread is pooling in his abdomen. Kisuke looks up slowly, at what looks like at least half the division crowded into the courtyard, with more shinigami flooding in by the second.

Eyewitnesses. At least a hundred of them. Far more than Kisuke can get rid of inconspicuously.

And he… has just performed an unsanctioned kill.

_Oh god, what has he done?_

* * *

He doesn’t remember how he got out of there, other than he did not kill anyone else.

Yoruichi is out for lunch, and will not be back for another two hours, according to the guard she left to hold down the fort at the office. By then, the deadline for submitting a report will have passed.

There’s no way to cover it up. Kisuke pulls his drawer open, taking out the casualty report form. No, that one’s for if one of their own Stealth Corps members died while carrying out a mission. Same with the accident report form, which is for Stealth Corps members who require medical care. His hand hesitates over the remaining forms he has. The… incident report form? That one is meant for incidents not covered by the purview of the mission, but the by-line indicates quite clearly that it does not extend to deaths. Collateral damage? No, that’s for non-living things…

The only one that covers ‘death’ is the assassination report form. Kisuke isn’t sure if it also covers accidental death of a non-target, but it seems to make more sense than the others.

By some miracle his hand does not shake as he fills in the details.

No one stops him as he heads for the First Division, leaving a copy in Yoruichi’s office as the workflow dictates. The gate guards do stop him this time, but they just wave him through the moment they see the paper he is clutching like a lifeline to his chest.

Lieutenant Sasakibe has an entire office to himself. There is a row of boxes displayed on a long table right outside the door, marked neatly with the insignia for each Division, each of them overflowing with paperwork.

Kisuke hesitates, but eventually slots the form into the box closest to the door, which is labelled simply as URGENT ONLY.

That done, he is at a loss what to do. Starting his patrol at the Maggots’ Nest early seems like a good idea. At least he can’t accidentally get anyone killed there.

* * *

Barely a few hours pass before a Hell Butterfly lands on his wrist, informing that all his duties have been henceforth transferred to other personnel and he is to clear his desk of personal effects before the end of the day.

Close on the heels of the butterfly is the Fifth Seat, who just shrugs when Kisuke manages to stutter out a question and says that he was only told to report immediately to the Maggots’ Nest to relieve Kisuke of his duties.

Left with no recourse, Kisuke ducks out of the Maggots’ Nest, bracing himself against a tree to collect himself.

He’s – he will be –

His desk is empty when he gets to it, all the papers and classified files cluttering its surface having already vanished. Shiba Yuzu’s daily bento box lies untouched in its drawer, but the rest of the drawers have been cleared out.

Kisuke takes the bento box out, sets it on top of the desk, and goes to find Yoruichi.

The door to her office is barred with the wards that indicate that she’s in the middle of a meeting, which is extremely odd – Yoruichi would never schedule a meeting right after lunch, says that she likes to have the time to digest her meal without it curdling in her stomach.

The guard at the entrance has changed to Suì-Fēng, the previous one presumably having gone for his own lunch break. She sneers at Kisuke as he approaches, her lip curling in disgust as she moves to physically bar the entrance.

“Haven’t you made enough of a mess already?” she demands, before he opens his mouth.

Guilt and terror roils in Kisuke’s stomach. So it _is_ an emergency meeting that was called because… because of him. Of his actions.

Still, he has to _try_. “I need to see Yoruichi-san –”

“She’s _busy_,” Suì-Fēng spits out. “Unlike you. So why don’t you go sit quietly in a room and stop making more trouble for everyone else?”

He can… he can do that.

Kisuke’s mind flashes first to the Shihōin Manor before he remembers that he does not live there anymore. He… there is, he has, a room at the – at the Shiba House. Where he now lives. Because he is married.

His mind is strangely empty as he picks up Shiba Yuzu’s bento box and walks out of the only place he has ever called home.


	2. Chapter 2

_Now…_

He feels strangely light when he finishes his recount, like the confession has taken a weight off his chest. Ichigo knows everything now.

And now… now, he waits for judgement.

“So you’ve been… sitting here since early afternoon?” Ichigo clarifies.

Kisuke nods perhaps a tad too quickly, too eager to show that he _is_ capable of obeying instruction. He hasn’t considered it before, but – does this annul his marriage? Since he is no longer a Third Seat and therefore an unsuitable match for a Lieutenant?

Will he… will he have to go _back _–

“And you’re not injured anywhere?”

He shakes his head in shame and guilt. Kiganjō hasn’t – his sword had been drawn, but Kisuke didn’t even give him a chance to –

“Kisuke,” Ichigo says in the careful tone he uses on Kisuke sometimes, when he’s not sure how Kisuke will respond, “may I – may I hug you? Please?”

The request comes so out of left field that it takes Kisuke several long moments to first understand what Ichigo is asking, and then even longer to cautiously nod.

Like he’s soothing a skittish animal, Ichigo extends his arms slowly, wraps them around Kisuke, and then pulls Kisuke forwards into his chest. “I'm sorry about Kiganjō. He – it's a stupid habit he has, to attack anyone strong he hears about, to get a good fight - I’m so glad you’re okay.” Ichigo presses his lips to his hair, his voice sounding oddly choked. “I – I love you.”

Kisuke’s thoughts screech to a halt.

He… he knows what those words mean in that order, although he’s never heard them directed to him before –

“Isn’t your clan going to renegotiate the contract?” his mouth moves of its own accord.

Ichigo pulls back, just far enough that he can see Kisuke’s face. “What are you talking about?”

He can’t even look at Ichigo. “I’m – I’m no longer the Third Seat of the Second Division,” Kisuke grits out, staring at the far wall.

“Well, yeah?” Ichigo says, in a tone that indicates he doesn’t quite get Kisuke’s hang-ups about the situation. “You can’t be the Third Seat of the Second and the Captain of the Eleventh at the same time?”

Wha – “Huh?”

“You… killed the incumbent captain of the Eleventh in one-on-one combat in front of two hundred members of the division?” Ichigo prompts slowly. “That… makes you the new Kenpachi?”

He… that changes things. Kisuke’s first hysterical thought is that surely, captaincy makes him an even more suitable match for a lieutenant.

“But I don’t even know –” He’s… none of his training ever covers this situation. Nothing he’s ever learnt tells him how he’s supposed to handle being transferred _out of the Second_.

Ichigo pulls him into another hug. “It’s okay. I’ll just – you just need to fill in more forms, I’ll help you, and we can – we can go in together. Tomorrow. If you like.”

Kisuke nods into Ichigo’s shoulder.

A flash of movement outside his window catches his attention. It looks a lot like the flick of a black cat’s tail as it vanishes.

Kisuke smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> Ichigo: (boasts about his husband, whom he is Very Proud Of)  
Kiganjo, upon seeing said husband in his division: IMMA FIGHT THAT.
> 
> Find me on [Discord](https://discord.gg/8yJVmbD) | [Tumblr](http://starriewolf.tumblr.com) | [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Starrie_Wolf) | [cywscross's UraIchi Discord server](https://discordapp.com/invite/ADFnKTZ#_=_).


End file.
